The More Clients Blog

Marketing Lessons from BP

by Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Of all the horrific revelations of the BP Gulf Disaster, to me, one stands out more than any other. When all the top oil executives were testifying at hearings in congress, a starling fact was revealed:

All the oil companies' disaster plans for spills were identical.

No, they weren't similar, they were complete clones of each other. Every detail, every paragraph, every reference (even to one consultant who had died several years ago) were exactly the same - to the letter.

It's as if they'd gone on the Internet, looked up "oil spill disaster plans," found one, copied it, put it in a binder, and stuck it on a shelf. Satisfied that they actually now had an official disaster plan, they then proceeded to drill more oil wells, never thinking of the plan again.

The result: The worst environmental disaster in history.

If they had planned, really planned, it would have taken an enormous amount of time and money, but that amount would pale in comparison to what the oil spill will cost BP, not to mention the cost to you and me.

But guess what? Right now you and I can't do much about that.

So please don't send me emails telling me how much you agree (or disagree) with me about BP. My purpose is not to condemn BP. They will be condemned for generations to come.

This eZine is about our own flagrant disregard for planning.

Let me ask you a few pointed questions:

Do you have a definite, written plan to attract clients this year?

Do you have a proven methodology to attract clients?

Do you know what your cash flow will be in the coming year?

And if you don't have plans in these areas, do you have, at least, plans to make plans?

I've worked with clients to help them attract clients for over 25 years. What was missing for virtually all of them was a plan of any kind. Or if they did have a plan, they were not implementing it.

So if you are wondering why you don't have as much business as you can handle, there's really just one place you need to look:

Your Marketing Plan!

If you break it down to the fundamentals, your plan must have the following three components.

1. A Package - In other words, a definite, tangible offering to your clients. And no, coaching, consulting, training, accounting, etc. don't count. You can't buy those. You can buy a "Six Month Product Development Acceleration Program."

And once you know exactly what you are selling and to whom you are selling, you need to package those services: A great web site full of valuable content, a services page outlining your offering in great detail, and supporting materials such as articles, recordings, presentations, videos, etc.

2. A Marketing Strategy - These are the specific step-by-step actions you will take to attract clients. And the most important element is that they be organized and systematic, not random. And to implement a plan like that, you need to know what you are doing. You can't just "invent" it.

No less that the systematic implementation of well-designed strategies will produce the results you want. If you don't have that, it's all accidental and dependent on outside circumstances you have absolutely no control over.

3. A Selling Process - A good service package and effective marketing strategies will generate interest from highly qualified prospects ready to explore doing business with you. But you still need to turn those prospects into paying clients.

Only the Selling Process can do that. And virtually nobody has a selling process. Again, it's random and accidental, based on hope and good intentions. Do you know how to reliably convert a qualified prospect into a paying client? If not, you're sunk!

So how hard can all of this be?

Well, depending on how you look at it, it's either simple or impossible. The best analogy is a combination lock. The combination might be 5 - 29 - 13. If you know the combination, then not problem. But if you don't know the combination, (and the average combination lock has about 117,600 possible solutions) it can take you a V - E - R - Y long time to figure it out!

And remember, there are virtually infinite combinations in marketing. And most of the combinations are dead wrong!

So not only do you need a plan with those three components, you need information, training and coaching (from someone who has cracked the code) to effectively develop those plans in the first place.

Many people have part of the plan. But if you want to produce results at a whole different level, you need the complete plan and the skills to implement it.

Don't be like B.P.

Take the time to learn the components of the plan and then commit to mastering them. More Information Here. 

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The More Clients Bottom Line: A Marketing Plan isn't a luxury to get around to one day; it's the master key to attracting clients. To develop a plan will take some focused time and effort but it is the best investment you can possibly make in your business.

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What stops you from creating and implementing a marketing plan? Please share your answer on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the Comments link below.

Outsourcing to Your Virtual Self

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

One morning in 2001 I woke up and declared: "I can't take it anymore!" And that's when things really started to change in my business.

What couldn't I take anymore?

I couldn't stand training every single one of my clients individually in my marketing methodologies one at a time.

One day I'd train a client in the concepts of Marketing Ball or making appointments or using speaking as a marketing tool and then the next day I'd be training someone else in exactly the same thing.

After many years of this, it started to get old. Real old.

That's when I figured out how to do group programs. This way I could train people as a group (via teleconference) and then offer individual coaching on the finer points.

This led to my Marketing Action Groups which I ran for several years. And it was not only great because I didn't have to train clients individually anymore, but the fact that I worked with clients about half as many hours, made twice the money and got even better results.

Then I created the Marketing Club and put all my best how-to marketing methods and systems into self-paced online tutorials. This eliminated the need for live training of any kind, whether by teleconference or workshops.

And last year I created the Marketing Mastery Program that takes the foundational material from the Marketing Club and adds intensive coaching in the form of both group and individual sessions.

What I realized is that I'd completely outsourced the training part of my business to my virtual self!

And that training is more consistent, reliable and available than any live training could ever be. Now members of the Marketing Club and Marketing Mastery Program have access to my best marketing materials 24 hours a day.

So what does this mean to you?

It means you can also outsource training to your virtual self. And this can free you up to do client work that is at a much higher level.

Here are some possibilities:

1. Commit your methodologies, processes and exercises to paper. Turn them into pdfs and post them online where your clients can easily access them.

2. Do recordings of the same material and make them available online as mp3s. If you offer both, your clients will get more retention of the material.

3. Turn the materials into PowerPoint or Keynote presentations and then add an audio narration. This is an area I'm experimenting with and I think it could be the most powerful.

Now make these materials available to clients before you work with them in a group or individually. This has many advantages:

1. Your clients can study the materials on their schedule, not yours. They can listen, read, do exercises and take the time they need to absorb the materials.

2. When you do your group or individual work with clients it will be on a higher level. Instead of training in the basic concepts, you'll be answering questions and working on the finer points.

3. Virtual training in this material will add more consistency, as the material will always be the same. And of course, you can update it when that's called for.

4. It will take you much less time to consult, coach or train if you also add a virtual training component. You can use this time gained to develop more materials.

5. Ultimately you may decide to turn some of these materials into an e-book or other stand-alone program that you can sell online to earn ongoing passive income.

A few things that will increase the success of outsourcing to your virtual self:

1. If you provide material to study before group or individual sessions, it must be a requirement, not a suggestion. If it's optional, most people will avoid doing it.

2. Always have assignments on the material that they send in to you. Yeah, I know this sounds like being a grade school teacher. But reviewing this material doesn't take long.

3. Provide feedback on their assignments. If you don't include this feedback loop, they'll start to drag on getting their materials back to you.

To make all of this work, you need to buck the conventions of ordinary training. The truth about training is pretty ugly. There is only about 10% retention from reading or training alone. But if you add groups sessions and individual coaching, retention increases to as high as 90%.

Remember the old saying, "work smart, not hard"?

Well, combining training with coaching is smart. But making the training virtual is even smarter. You'll spend less time and be able focus on the higher level stuff.

The most important consideration in all of this, of course, is that whatever you do, it has to improve results. You need to be in the success story business. My experience is that working this way takes a lot of the training burden off me so that I can focus on helping my clients achieve those results.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Find out a way to outsource training and the transfer of other information to your virtual self. You'll find that your virtual self will work 24 hours a day, never get exhausted and never require a raise!

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What training or information could you start outsourcing to your virtual self? Please share your answer on the More Clients Blog by Clicking on the Comments link below.

New Vistas in Online Video

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Every time I come up with a new marketing strategy, I like to share it with my More Clients subscribers.

I'm kind of excited about this one because I vowed to get into video this year but have faced barrier after barrier every time I tried. If you've done video, you know that...

It's hard to actually look good on video!

Getting the lighting and technical stuff right is tricky

If you hire someone to do video for you, it can be expensive

Just getting the script right can take forever

But this past week, my friend and new "marketing and online technical coach and wizard," Rob Goyette, showed me how I could do a completely different kind of video online.

You might call it an "online video report"

Instead of a long report explaining your concepts and services, you turn that report into an online video which you narrate.

So when a visitor comes to your web page they see the words of the presentation, along with your voice. Let me give you a step-by-step guide on how to do this:

1. Create a PowerPoint (PC) or Keynote Presentation (Mac) that takes you one step at a time through your informational report. It will actually be many fewer words, as it needs to be focused and succinct.

But It won't be like most PowerPoints. Not a lot of graphics and bullet points. It will actually read more like a script. Just a few words on every screen.

It took me five or six hours to do my first one. 150 slides that move very fast.

This is definitely the biggest part of the work to do an online video. But guess what? I've spent as much as 100 hours on a report! No kidding. Who has that kind of time?

And these days, people want to read less, not more.

3. Once you have the presentation all done, you can convert it to a pdf and then use screen capture software as you go through the presentation.

The best software for this is Camtasia. Now available for Mac at long last; it's been out on PC for years.

You turn on Camtastia and you go through the presentation as if it's a tele-prompter. You'll also need a microphone - I just used the built-in one on my Mac laptop.

So you don't have to memorize a script, which is a real relief.

I recommend practicing it through two or three times (fine tuning the presentation as you go) and then, lights, action, camera, you're good to go.

Once you've recorded it, you can go into Camtasia and edit it with very simple tools. The editing didn't take long at all.

4. Once the video is completed, you export it (either Quick Time or Flash) and put the files onto your web page and web server. You may need a little help from your web developer here, but it's very simple and only took me a few minutes to get it up and running.

You can see the results on my web page with my brand new presentation: "The 7 Secrets to Attracting More Clients."

Click here for the online presentation

You'll also see that this is not only a valuable report but a very low key way to introduce a service instead of using a traditional sales letter.

Give it a shot. I believe it's the new wave of marketing and perfect for InfoGurus who want to provide valuable information in a dynamic and fun way.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: To add variety and interest to your web site, try video presentations. They are relatively easy to do, and with a little technical help from your web developer, you can have an attention-getting video up on your web site in less than a day.

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What kind of results have you had with online video or video presentations? Please share your answer on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the Comments link below.

Specific Follow-Up Strategies

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Last week I established the absolute necessity for follow-up.

But the question is, "How do I follow-up?" In today's More Clients I'll give you 7 very practical strategies for effective follow-up.

1. Follow-Up Soon

It's easy to delay, but if you do, the impact of the follow-up fades dramatically. If you meet someone through networking and say you'll follow-up, do so the very next day. If you give a talk and promise you'll send something to those who give you their card, follow-up within 2 days maximum. Make sure to set aside time for this follow-up so you can easily fit it into your schedule.

2. Organize Your Follow-Ups

First of all, make it a game. Find some way to make it fun, not a dreaded chore. Reward yourself for doing a certain number of follow-up calls. Make the process a regular part of your business and follow a certain process every time. Do some follow-up calls every single day.

3. Script Your Follow-Ups

That is, know what you are going to say and where you want the conversation to lead. A follow-up call is not a sales call, it's a marketing call to explore possibilities. So know what you're going to say and have a track that leads to setting up a sales appointment or adding that person to your keep-in-touch list.

Suggest times to meet instead of just asking them to get back to you. "I have time to talk at 3:30 on Thursday. I'll call you again then. Let me know if that doesn't work and we can reschedule."

More on this in Value-Laden Messages below.

4. Do Some Research

Imagine that someone follows-up with you after a networking event and says, "Hi, I met you at the Chamber of Commerce last night, can you tell me what you do?" Or the alternative: "Hi I met you at the Chamber of Commerce last night and I just spent some time on your web site learning about your business. I wanted to talk with you about..." It's amazing how little interest we show in potential clients. No wonder you fail to make a connection that leads anywhere.

5. Use Value-Laden Messages

Don't do this: "Hi, this is Jan Brown from ABC Consulting; we met at the Chamber last night. We offer a complete range of consulting services designed to meet your needs. I'd like to get together with you to explain our services and how we can help you." This will get a brush-off or your call won't be returned.

Instead, lead with your value proposition and give a reason they'd want to speak with you:

"Hi, this is Jan Brown from ABC Consulting. When I met you at the chamber yesterday, I thought about your issue of lost productivity from your top managers. I'd like to share some ideas with you about how we've increased productivity by 25% or more in companies similar to yours." See the difference?

6. Use Friendly Persistence

If you meet someone that you sincerely think you could provide value for, don't give up after one follow-up call. It can take many contacts before something happens. That message above might be followed-up with an email and a link to an article online. This might be followed-up by another message. If someone doesn't get back to you right away, it either means your message did not contain enough value or that they're just busy.

You can control the first and apply friendly persistence to the second.

After a few messages and email without response, you might leave a final message. "Hi, Jan, from ABC Consulting. Sorry we haven't been able to connect. I'd sure like to talk to you about increasing productivity with your managers. Just working with a client now where we're making big changes that will save them hundreds of thousands of dollars. But I don't want to keep bugging you. If you'd like to speak, here's my phone and email."

This will often get a return call when they realize the ball is in their court.

7. Follow-Up doesn't mean "Hassling" Prospects

One of the biggest reasons for not following-up is that we believe we are hassling people. We think we're a nuisance and that we'll be rejected. Well, if you follow-up incorrectly you can be! But if you make sure you add value to every call and you are firm in your conviction that your service is valuable, you are doing people a great service by following-up.

After all, think how you'd feel if you discovered someone else had followed-up and gotten this prospect as a client. You'd realize that this prospect needed this service and the only reason you didn't get it was because of poor follow-up.

Master follow-up and you master marketing.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: We avoid follow-up because of fear of rejection. But we also avoid it because we don't know exactly what to do and how to do it. Make it a priority to learn, as there may be no more important marketing skill.

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How are you going to improve your follow-up skills? Please share your answer on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the Comments link below.

Bridging the Follow-Up Gap

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Pop Quiz: What's the biggest canyon in the world?

No, not the Grand Canyon. It's the "Follow-Up Gap."

This is the gap between the marketing activity you direct towards a prospective client and setting up an appointment with this prospect.

No gap is wider, and untold millions fall between this gap every year. The prospect is interested, you've done a good job at marketing and then what happens?

You either don't follow-up or you follow-up ineptly.

So how do you manage the follow-up gap? Understanding this could have a huge impact on the success of your business. Here are the three client-attracting steps you need to master:

1. Marketing generates interest and warms up prospects. In marketing ball, you get the attention of a prospect, develop familiarity, provide information and then offer an experience of you and your business so they are at a place of genuine interest in your services.

2. You then follow-up appropriately, not to make the sale or even to pitch your services, but to talk to explore the possibility of setting up a selling conversation (also known as a Strategy Session).

3. A Strategy Session must be set up with a qualified prospect under favorable conditions. The conditions are: a) They already know you and know something about your services, b) they are able to meet with you for 60 to 90 minutes uninterrupted, and c) they are sincerely ready to explore working with you.

Once you've set up this session, you switch from Marketing to Selling and you finally have the opportunity of converting a prospect into a paying client.

Sounds easy, right?

But since most have such a hard time making this happen, something must be wrong. What are you missing? Well, a whole lot of things can go wrong in this process without you being aware of them. Here are a few:

1. You fail to implement the marketing process effectively. You don't get the attention, build familiarity, provide information or offer experiences. In other words, you don't build relationships. People like to do business with people they know, not strangers.

2. You follow up either too soon, trying to get an appointment before the relationship is established or you follow up too late, even if the prospect is qualified and interested. Or worse, you don't follow-up at all because you're afraid of being rejected.

3. You conduct an incompetent selling conversation. You talk too much and don't listen enough, failing to really understand the prospect or their needs. You close too soon, too late, or not at all and wonder why nobody appreciates your wonderful services!

Look, attracting new clients to your business is not a mystery. Many people have cracked the code and enjoy as much business as they can manage. It's not luck. It's a skill implemented with discipline and consistency.

But if you had to work on only one thing, what would it be?

It would be mastering the Follow-up Gap.

Why? Because if you get into the habit of following up, sooner or later you'll discover when follow-up works best and what marketing you have to do to warm up the prospect. And if you follow up a lot and get more appointments, sooner or later you'll get the hang of the selling process.

Byron Katie says something similar: You can have anything you want in the world if you are willing to ask 1,000 people.

Who will you follow up with this week?

Next week I'll share some specific techniques on the Follow-up Gap.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: There are three simple keys to attracting more clients: Marketing, Follow-Up and Selling. Master all three and you'll never worry about your future or the economy or money again. But you might want to start with follow-up. For one, it's free, and secondly, the opportunities are infinite.

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Who do you need to follow-up with this week? Please share your answer on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the Comments link below: